


we are the poisoned youth

by My_King_And_Your_Lionheart



Series: We're All Just Kids [5]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: But Like In A Friend/Familial Way?, Dick and Wally want to make sure Conner is safe, Family Dinners, Found Family, Gen, General tailing after, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kaldur'ahm's home for abused youngsters, Low Key Shovel Talk, M/M, Spying, Stalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 07:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19246807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_King_And_Your_Lionheart/pseuds/My_King_And_Your_Lionheart
Summary: Look Kaldur isn't blind, okay? He knows when he's being followed. Now if only that redhead would leave his apartment alone, that would be great.





	we are the poisoned youth

**Author's Note:**

> Look, I do realize that clone Roy Harper, which is the Roy Harper in these fics, goes by Will as of S3, but also I've decided to fuck canon bc my boy Kaldur'ahm has like two seconds of screentime and none of it is restful and he deserves his rest!!!!
> 
> Title from Centuries by Fall Out Boy
> 
> as always the entire series is inspired by the absolutely amazing artwork by murrmernator on tumblr, whose piece can be found here -> http://murrmernator.tumblr.com/post/100024348321/what

Conner has been staying with them for two weeks before things start going wrong. By “going wrong” Kaldur means that his apartment is being watched. The person isn’t an amateur either, leaving no trace on surrounding rooftops or following too closely on streets. The only way Kaldur knows he’s being monitored at all is because he forgot his knife on the coffee table and the edge of a jacket disappear around the edge of his fire escape right as he opened the door. E knows what they should do next.

“I know you like our apartment, beloved, but it is not safe.” Kaldur readjusted his grip on his cellphone. “I refuse to put you in danger.” Kaldur can picture the heavy scowl to go along with Roy’s heavy sigh. 

“I know, babe, it’s just…” Roy lets out another deep breath. “What if they’re not after you? What if it’s the kid?” He says “kid” but Conner is not much younger than either of them. Kaldur opens his mouth, but his boyfriend knows him well enough to stop him before he can get going. “I’m not saying we sell him out. I’m saying we tell whoever it is that he’s off limits.” 

Kaldur can work with that.

“How do you propose we do that?” Kaldur has his fair share of fighting experience, but Roy has his own history. 

“You still have your _xiphos_?” The foreign word tripped awkwardly off of Roy’s tongue, but that did nothing to dull the ideas blooming in Kaldur’s mind. Nothing lethal, of course, because every message needed a messenger.

“Of course. The skies seem like an appropriate venue for such a showdown.” Roy laughed on the other end of the line.

“You gonna tell him?”

“No. He deserves his peace.” Conner really did. The cut on his temple had begun to scar over, and Kaldur ached that Conner would have to see that reminder every time he looked in the mirror. “If they are not dissuaded, we will tell him.”

“Sounds good. Gotta get back to work, though. Love you.” Kaldur smiled gently.

“As I love you. Goodbye, Roy.” Roy hummed and hung up, which was Kaldur’s cue to head out of the port side of their small town and back toward their apartment. He went a little out of his way to stop by Roy’s favorite pastry shop and pick up a few cannoli for after their little escapade.

The rest of the walk to his apartment, Kaldur was aware of the person fifty or so feet behind him who would disappear for a few blocks and then reappear on the other side of the street. Kaldur doesn’t think he would have noticed as quickly if the stranger did not have bright red hair.

Kaldur lets himself into his apartment, surprised by the small of onions and spices frying. He drops his keys in the bowl on the table next to the door and notices Conner’s shoes and backpack dropped at the opening to their living room.

“Hey, Kaldur!” Conner is standing over a pot on the stove in sweatpants and one of Kaldur’s old shirts.

“Hello, Conner. What is all this?” Kaldur steps into the kitchen and places the box of pastries on what little counter space is unoccupied.

“I thought I would make dinner tonight. Least I could do for you guys letting me stay here.” Conner rubs a hand over the top of his head, making his hair stick out every which way. “I hope you like curry.” He goes back to stirring at the pot, tossing more ingredients in before Kaldur can see them all. Kaldur moves to put the cannoli in the refrigerator.

“You have managed to pick Roy’s favorite food, so I do not think he will mind. How was school?” Kaldur listened as Conner talked about his classes in between adding things to the pot.

“Oh, and there’s this new transfer girl. Her name is M’gann, and uh,” Kaldur looks up at Conner’s stuttering to see the red flush across his cheeks. “She’s, uh, she’s really pretty.” Kaldur smiles, but Conner is too busy not looking up from what he’s cooking to notice. Just before Kaldur can really say anything, there is the sound of a key slotting into the door, and then Roy is home, and Kaldur turns to greet him with a kiss, just like every night.

“How’re my favorite boys?” Roy drops his bag on a chair at the table and slings his arm around Kaldur’s shoulder, leaning into him comfortably. “And what on Earth is that heavenly smell?” Conner launches into his explanation of the meal, and of his day, as Kaldur extricates himself from Roy’s embrace to go put on lounge clothes. 

That plan is derailed as soon as he makes eye contact with the person looking into his apartment from the rooftop of the building on the other side of the street. The person doesn’t move, and Kaldur pretends his best to have not seen them, though he doesn’t end up changing. He does, however, pull his _xiphos_ from their place on the wall and strap the harness on. The blades cross his back comfortably, the hilts in easy reach over his shoulders.

“Kal?” The call comes from the kitchen, but Kaldur does not look away from the window. “Dinner’s almost ready, babe.” 

“I need but a moment.” Kaldur keeps his voice calm. “Feel free to start without me.” Kaldur slides open the living room window to go out onto the fire escape. He looks down to find his footing, and by the time he looks up, the figure on the other side of the street is gone. Kaldur climbs the stairs.

“Was wondering when you were going to notice.” The voice greets Kaldur as he climbs the final steps to the roof, and is greeted with two people. One of them seems awfully young, and there are sunglasses on his face. The other is the redhead, and on further inspection, Kaldur sees bruising around his collar.

“Believe me, I noticed much earlier than tonight.” Kaldur doesn’t reach for his blades yet, because the other two are visibly unarmed. Kaldur might not have qualms about fighting unfairly, but he does not believe in escalation for the sake of escalation.

“We saw what you did for that kid.” The younger one is talking, though he sounds much older than he looks. “Why’d you take him?” Kaldur suspected it was about Conner, but he doesn’t understand where the line of questioning is going.

“He was in danger. I sought to help him escape it.” The redhead’s shoulders shrink almost imperceptibly, but the other boy doesn’t move.

“Is he really safer with you?” Kaldur tilts his head to the side, but doesn’t answer. “What are you gonna do with him?” Kaldur shrugs.

“I will do nothing he does not want to do.” And then, realizing how that sounds, “He is free to leave if he wishes, and I have nothing to keep him here. He was given a choice. I have never meant to take it from him.” The boy seems to relax, if only slightly.

“If that’s the case, why’d you come up here with swords? Seems like a little much, to me.” Kaldur lets his mouth turn down, though doesn’t move otherwise.

“Let me remind you that you have been watching my apartment for weeks. I assumed your motives to be sinister. Am I wrong in that assumption?” The redhead speaks, finally.

“We’re just here to make sure you don’t hurt him.” Kaldur doesn’t move even as the redhead approaches him. There’s a finger in his face, but Kaldur keeps his gaze fixed on the green eyes glaring at him. “Are you going to hurt him?” The hand in Kaldur’s face is shaking, but he pays it no mind.

“I would never so much as speak harmfully to him, I swear on my life.” The hand in Kaldur’s face drops, but the kid doesn’t back up out of his space. “Would you like to come talk to him yourself?” That does get the kid to back up a couple paces. Neither of them make any move to come closer to Kaldur, who shrugs. “We are having curry for dinner, if you are interested. I will leave the window open.” With that, Kaldur turns his back on the two and descends the fire escape to reenter his apartment.

“Kal, where the hell have you been?” Roy is in the living room when Kaldur comes back in, his eyes darting from the _xiphos_ still strapped to Kaldur’s back to the window behind him.

“Just up on the roof, beloved, having a talk.” Kaldur unbuckles the harness and sets to putting his blades away. “We may end up with company for dinner.” Kaldur finally changes into sweatpants and a worn shirt and enters the kitchen to find Conner scooping curry into bowls and pulling the utensils from their drawer.

“There you are! Thought you’d changed your mind about the curry.” There are slight lines around Conner’s eyes, but nothing that stays as the three of them begin eating, continuing the talk about their respective days. As they finish up their dinner and Kaldur moves to the fridge to get the cannoli, there is a rattling in their living room.

“Who’s there?” Roy is up in an instant, moving to stand in between the open doorway and where Conner is still sitting. Kaldur places the pastry box in front of Conner before moving into the living room to see the two boys from before.

“Well, hello again.” The redhead is still fidgeting, eyes darting from the window to the door to where Kaldur and Roy are taking up the space in the doorway. He’s looking for exits, Kaldur realizes. “Are you hungry?”

“Yeah, I’m starved- what, Dick?” The redhead is stepping forward until a hand around his wrist stops him. Kaldur assumes that his friend’s name must be Dick. Unfortunate.

“I still don’t trust you.” Kaldur quirks a brow at the younger kid.

“Then it may relieve you to know that I did not cook tonight.” Kaldur turns his back on the two strangers in his living room, pushing Roy back into the kitchen with a gentle hand on his chest. “Help me unpack the pastries, beloved. Conner, would you please grab more plates?” Conner hesitated, but went to the cabinets to retrieve dessert plates for all of them, surprise guests included.

“Look,” the redhead stormed up to Kaldur, sticking his hand out between them. Kaldur wasn’t sure if he was supposed to shake it or not. “We saw what you did for him.” The kid drops his hand when it’s clear that Kaldur isn’t going to take it. “And only good people do something like that.” He knocks a fist against his forehead once. “I mean- good people don’t expect anything back. So. You seem like a good person. And there are a lot of bad people out there.” Kaldur nods.

“There are many bad people out there. It appears as though you know one yourself.” The redhead flinches back so violently from Kaldur that he actually slams his shoulder into the door frame. “I apologize, but,” Kaldur trails off, gesturing to his own neck. “Would you like ice?” The kid just stares at him.

“Look. Just. Do you want to stop bad people or not?” Kaldur looks from the redhead to the boy behind him.

“I’ve spent my life righting the wrongs of other people in my home country. I suppose I could try to do that here as well.” The redhead marches right back up to Kaldur, and when the boy sticks his hand out this time, Kaldur takes it.

“Cool. I’m Wally. That’s Dick. And-uh. Yeah. I’ve known some monsters.” Kaldur lets Wally’s hand drop.

“You are welcome to stay here, if you do not want to go back to your monsters.” Kaldur doesn’t even register Dick moving until he’s pushing Wally behind himself.

“He stays with me.” Kaldur might have to look down at this boy who seems so young, but he doesn’t doubt that every inch of this teenager in front of him is wrought from steel.

“Then would you care for some food?” Wally’s eyes trail to the pot of curry still on the stove.

“You know, I think we would love some.” They both end up eating the rest of the curry and crashing on Kaldur’s couch. Kaldur leaves the window open all night.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos keep me alive! Also I have like three other stories in the works for this series so stay tuned!!!


End file.
